Am i only person that thinks Nadella should go?

[Aden Rossinni]

Definitely, 100% get rid of that guy.

 

[fiveaces01]

Anyone that thinks they can stay competitive at any level without something that people are carrying around with them is a complete fool. Mobile is how people access nearly everything they do. From emails and texts to phone calls and most certainly the internet. Eventually people are going to switch what they use at home to the same OS as what they have in their pocket. Might not happen right away but it will happen. Then what Satya??? And what a complete lie when he made his opening briefing...remember this? Mobile First, Cloud First

 

[R0bR]

Not true. When WP7 was released Android had just over 100,000 apps and iPhone was dominating global marketshare. The difference is that Android was maturing quickly as Microsoft spent the next 8 months getting WP7 to a useable state with the mango release. I do agree with your assessment that Microsoft sat on their laurels and development was incredibly slow.

 

[tgp]

Anyone that thinks they can stay competitive at any level without something that people are carrying around with them is a complete fool.

IDK, I work for a tech company and we develop our own software, among other things. We don't have a mobile OS, and we're doing OK. I think we'll make it.

 

[naddy6969]

“Time to stop being emotionally invested in a faceless corporation and let them do what they will.”

Exactly.

Microsoft is making money. Stock has been going up for over 5 years. That is not “short term”. How many more billions of dollars do you want them to lose on Windows phones?

 

[Guytronic]

...

 

[tgp]

“Time to stop being emotionally invested in a faceless corporation and let them do what they will.”

Exactly.

Microsoft is making money. Stock has been going up for over 5 years. That is not “short term”. How many more billions of dollars do you want them to lose on Windows phones?

Looking at it objectively, I think we're just emotionally invested in the mobile situation because it was a product for which we had high hopes. Put a product in its place that we don't care about, and we'd probably say "Good riddance!"

 

[woreyeoe]

There's no guarantee that Andromeda is an actual OS. Some of the latest news from May-Jo Foley is that it may simply be some next-gen, high-end device. While it may be great and ground breaking, it won't be for the masses. So there's nothing, at this point, to suggest MS is cooking up something that will appeal to the masses. I'm with you thought. No mobile platform from top to bottom means Windows is simply on a slow death to irrelevance.

 

[woreyeoe]

The direction of breaking down the silos and going heavy into the cloud space were both products of Ballmer. Nadella was the beneficiary of this. Now, he's totally abandoned a vertical smartphone ecosystem which in no way can be good for MS long-term. Windows is now, most assuredly, on a slow death towards irrelevance. I'm not saying that he's going to be fired, but I do think his decision to abandon smartphone hardware will be shown to be an enormous miscalculation.

 

[covfefe]

Satya is simply riding on the organic growth of cloud.

 

[Jcmg62]

It's just amazing that Many W10M users are forced to migrate to another platform , am I the only person that thinks Nadella should've put more effort into mobile and uwp? How can your OS be relevant without a mobile platform, the numbers are growing daily about mobile usage , it's how world is connected and how it will be for quite sometime.

I don't think they should fire Nadella necessarily, because he's making the company money, and more money means more research and development, which means more cool products and services.

That said, I think what the comapny should do is create a role for a very senior consumer focussed candidate, perhaps someone who doesn't report to Nadella. He/she reports only to the board and is responsible for building the consumer brand.

Basically they should have two Microsofts.

 

[Wevenhuis]

It's just amazing that Many W10M users are forced to migrate to another platform , am I the only person that thinks Nadella should've put more effort into mobile and uwp? How can your OS be relevant without a mobile platform, the numbers are growing daily about mobile usage , it's how world is connected and how it will be for quite sometime.

I'm sure Nadella does a lot of good things for the end users and microsoft. I think Nadella inherited a mess of a mobile ecosystem and managed to find a way to fit it into the new mission statement, with innovation in mind.
The thing I am angry about is the false promise of upgradability. While true to a degree, the promise was windows 10 would end the debacle of limited OS servicing, like the fiasco of windows phone 7 to windows 10 mobile. Windows 10 mobile for me had a lot of promise that the cord of the fiasco had been cut and we would have an option to have a mobile phone device with an almost pc like experience and its upgradability and servicing path. That last part turns out not to be true, and was a slap in the face. The OS was fine, had a lot of potential and granted some growing pains at launch. And then, merely less than two years later windows 10 mobile was put into maintenance mode with the next chapter being windows 10 on arm and the mobile experience moved as a piggy back experience on iOS and Android. On the one hand smart, as there is more choice in mobile phone without losing the mobile productivity experience with certain windows and office apps.

It hurt investing in a platform with a clear promise. Nadella did warn it was going to be a long term investment. Fine with me. But two years is really very short. And there is no follow-up. If microsoft would at least have supported a slightly longer product cycle where continuum would have truly come to fruition with Cshell on current and perhaps one more cycle of new devices, the transtion to windows on ARM would have been better. But now it litterally feels like being dumped, without a sorry, and that windows mobility has truly turned the page of a clean slate. While not bad in light of innovation and looking forward, this action has made me more critical on microsoft's future innovations in light of future servicing, as I've now started to see the trend of disappointing short cycles since windows phone 7. I don't think that mindset had changed, perhaps with the exception of the surface line. The former is, in my view, a bad and manipulative business model.

Despite this harsh remark, I do have to say that maintenance of windows mobile and the apps is actually great. The phone and software, it seems is getting better over time. I am sad though that we didn't get cshell and better continuum updates for apps. I just haven't used continuum anymore simply because of lack of uwp app support and lack of multitasking, by at least having two apps open side by side. I think that is the minimum windows 10 mobile needs to be useful as a pc in your smartphone pocket device.

I still have my fingers crossed to be able to still get cshel on my lumia 950xl, despite manintance mode.

I don't think it is enough reason for me to say Nadella should step down. But I would consider a change in communication, where inspiration is replaced by clarity, which would help reduce second guessing and prevent unwanted surprises when reading between the lines.

I do think however, my blindspot is that microsoft has likely done a lot of work in the background to get windows, mobility and apps working. I think Xamarin was a smart move, but then it's sad to see that many apps in ads still only show iOS and android and not windows 10 mobile. I wouldn't know how microsoft could ever catch up being late to the market. Innovation and collaboration in the broadest term possible, is smart. I hope it helps to push more UWP apps through. We're going to need it for the new future of mobility.

 

[Enrico 117]

I believe abandoning W10M was the worst misstep Satia could have done. All the biggest technology companies, including MS, are already focusing and paying attention to the next big thing: AI. By ditching W10M, Microsoft's AI Cortana is being used less and less and it's slowly becoming irrelevant. I believe this spells trouble for Microsoft, they are primed to be placed last in the race for the next big technological thing.

 

[ryankelsey7]

Fire Nadella. I hate his guts for what he did with Windows phone

 

[TechFreak1]

agreed with everything you've said but why is it in migrating towards this Andromeda Windows OS, you have to drop W10M completely? dropping in markets that you had many loyal and even newly loved users, after release of 950/XL Microsoft should've used all efforts into making W10M polished and creating fully unique experiences not putting all exclusives on other platforms. I've converted about 100 people to W10M and most are frustrated but are so in love with the UI in comparison to Google and iOS.

The thing with most engineers is that in the simplest sense they approach things two ways - replace a faulty part or cut it out completely.

Then when you throw in reliance on analytics and telemetry you have a mess in the making because numbers only tell you on portion of the picture not the complete picture. You cannot quantify what makes some one smile, I know this is probably been discussed ad nauseam but the photo hub was redesigned based on telemetry. Instead of seeing a panaroma of your favourite moments, you see a grid of photos. Because they saw people were going to the albums and camera roll soon after opening the photohub (Joe Belfiore mentioned that during one of the build events to reiterate a point on efficiency). What they cannot see is a person's smile when you look at a priceless moment and that can be difference between a good day or bad in the office for someone - that feeling cannot be quantified.

Plus add in the mix the bubble that most of Microsoft appear to be in, for example the marquee features of bing in Wp7 and Wp8 never made it out of the US. It's taken several years to bring bing rewards to other markets, had they done this sooner than they would have a way larger market share.

So going back to the first point, we had an amazing feature in rooms and then replaced by groupme which hardly anyone uses. Messaging everywhere gutted for the favour of skype, speaking of skype it was apparent that office politics was directing the roadmap.

Some engineers do not understand the concept of transitional phases and when you have majority of them... you get the haphazard pathway that we have seen on countless occassions and still seeing - combined with a risk averse leadership.... Of course office politics, stack ranking and inter-department resource competitions didn't help either (however, fortunately that appears to be slowly fading). I would say because of that we will never anything akin to the Zune client, where it would sync your music and playlist via WiFi whilst your phone was charging or the ill fated live lockscreen or LED notifications etc.

Windows phone 7 -> 8 and WM10 had alot of potential, still does but that going forward that lays with UWP... in regards to the actual mobile code that is now part of the Windows Core. The Wp UX is now used for the surface hub. The windows mpbile platform had so much potential but it was marred by so many factors, I could get into detail but I'd end up typing up a million page book

Never the less I still have faith, not in Satya Nadella but in the people who are heading the major departments suchas Panos Panay. Because you know he would never consider showcasing a competing platform alongside the hardware he and his team have painstakingly + loving designed.

Case in point when he was talking about his flow during the Future Decoded keynote, he talked about his day and what he did to reiterate the point / give more visceral information he could have taken out a competitors smartphone like some of his colleagues but he did not. He also uses the Surface Mini as his personal note taking device. That to me speaks volumes, you can tell a lot about a person from their mannerisms and body language.

Another example, the brief show case of the Lumia 950 and 950XL - it was so brief...

I personally wouldn't stand behind such a poorly designed product... the launch issues really indicated how much testing went in. Then again that's what happens when you fire all your dedicated programmatic testers. I'm not denigrating the people who designed the product but the software did not live upto flagship expectations and then compare the aesthetics of the devices to other products in that category... it's just meh at best (creaking back plates on a £500 product is a huge fail).

Although I prefer the design as a minimalist thus have no qualms about it, however it's not a design that screams premium. They should have shipped one of the premium Mozo back cover with the devices, then use that to launch the accessories for lumia line up.

I am hoping the Microsoft store launch in the UK will be a mark of postive change in the direction of consumers.

 

[Alex Rodriguez Jr.]

You guys have said a whole lot in here since my last post that I am not going to read. But, I have seen a lot of “absence in mobile.” Well, in my opinion, their presence in mobile has never been stronger than it is right now as it relates to the “modern” mobile market. They have the best mail, calendar, spreadsheet, presentation, Remote Desktop, etc. apps out there, being used by millions on relevant platforms. Windows on mobile was dead. It was dead the moment they hit the reset button after that first wave of momentum. I don’t agree that they needed to keep pushing this failing platform. The name was dead. The hardware was dead. And the complaints of the inept software/OS were out of control. Focusing on putting their name on every single platform that is relevant is a smart move.

 

[Ben Wolgus]

It's just amazing that Many W10M users are forced to migrate to another platform , am I the only person that thinks Nadella should've put more effort into mobile and uwp? How can your OS be relevant without a mobile platform, the numbers are growing daily about mobile usage , it's how world is connected and how it will be for quite sometime.

Nadella should not and will not be fired. He has managed to grow the share price which is what his shareholders want. So as an shareholder of the company I see no reason why anyone would want to fire him. Now as a consumer and long time non-business customer of Microsoft's products I think Nadella has been a complete and utter disappointment. He strung users along promising that mobile was a focus and then ditched mobile altogether without taking into account that millions of his customers were Windows Phone users not because don't know what is best for us but because after evaluating Android, IOS and WM we made the decision that Windows Mobile best suited our needs. For him to say that he didn't see the need for a third ecosystem was truly an insult to all Windows Phone users who did and do in fact see a need for a third ecosystem outside of the crappy IPhone and Android devices. How long of we been clamoring for a Surface Phone? Their marketing of their Surface line has been **** poor. They finally have an edge over Apple and they are failing to capitalize. Nobody should be buying an ipad at this point. Microsoft is like a boxer with no killer instinct. The Surface Studio is a beautiful device that should be promoted as the next step in the evolution of the PC. What new enhancements have they developed for the Surface Dial? Where is the Surface TV that consumers can pair with the Xbox? It's a natural fit but MS does not take advantage of their position in the market with the Xbox. Satya can only see making money in the areas that he is interested, everything else is just a waste of time to him. As CEO he was supposed to have a vision for all parts of Microsoft and not just his own little area of expertise. Was the mobile device selling like hotcakes? No but Nadella had a choice, take big chances swing for the fences because there is less to lose or quit and hand the market to competitors. Nadella decided to quit and cede the market to Google and Apple. I think for many of us users Nadella is a disappointment because he comes off as a risk averse dare I say uninspiring leader. When I see or hear him speak I'm not excited about the future of Microsoft. I hear about this Andromeda OS but instead of excitement I think "So how will Microsoft screw this up?", "Do I really want to wait for this?". I'm not thinking about paying some guying to wait in line for me so I can buy the device first on day one. I guess I would have been happier if Nadella had been left in charge of pushing Microsoft's B2B side and not put in control of the whole company. The stocks performance will prevent him from losing his CEO job though.

 

[Ben Wolgus]

Sony, LG, HTC all have global market share of under 4% in 2017 but all three of these companies still release phones and I don't see any people saying that they should stop releasing phones. If as you say "The hardware was dead", why haven't LG, HTC and Sony all come to the same conclusion about their hardware? In fact I would argue if HTC had made the Smart decision to switch their mobile focus to Windows Phone instead of Android they would have a large world market share in mobile phone sales than they have today. They have about 2% right now, I would argue that as the sole remaining WM manufacturer they would have 3% - 5% of the global market maybe more since the quality of appearance of their devices is comparable to the best looking android devices.

 

[Alex Rodriguez Jr.]

Sony, LG, HTC all have global market share of under 4% in 2017 but all three of these companies still release phones and I don't see any people saying that they should stop releasing phones. If as you say "The hardware was dead", why haven't LG, HTC and Sony all come to the same conclusion about their hardware? In fact I would argue if HTC had made the Smart decision to switch their mobile focus to Windows Phone instead of Android they would have a large world market share in mobile phone sales than they have today. They have about 2% right now, I would argue that as the sole remaining WM manufacturer they would have 3% - 5% of the global market maybe more since the quality of appearance of their devices is comparable to the best looking android devices.

The issue wasn’t the hardware. It was software. The companies you named don’t have their own OS so you’re comparing apples to oranges. There were what, a couple million Windows mobile devices when they made the decision? Apple sold that in 11 minutes at 3am on a Friday morning. I realized long ago the platform wasn’t going anywhere, I am not sure why a thread like this has to be made by people who can’t grasp that.

 

[Nero cui]

He is doing cool things in cloud and AI and the stock growth, no doubt. But they are losing enterprise due to their lack of commitment and reliability. Steve Balmer once said that Microsoft needs to widen it's skill set. They have enterprise skill set and gaming skill set, and he was developing consumer skill set. But Nadella killed the consumer skill set. Steve believe that there is no such thing as a company do one thing and do the same thing for a hundred years. He believe that a company either move forward or become less relevant. And that's what happened to IBM. And Google knows this, so they got their hands on Pixel and Google Home to get consumers to know Google as a brand rather than a website. Microsoft will be doomed in the consumer space if Nadella is still in charge. There, I said it. He is good at making money, but I hate him as consumer and think he should be gone for good.